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FOUNDERS 
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G. S. POTTER 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



Chap3D&.ZSlopyright No. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



The Founders of 
Rome 



By George S. Potter 




The Peter Paul Book Company 

Buffalo, New York 

1897 



,tf OF cowsT?^ 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED 




Copyright, 1897 

by 
George S. Potter 






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Printed and bound by The 
Peter Paul Book Company, 
in Buffalo, New York. 



The Founders of Rome 



Introduction 

I HAVE endeavored in the following sketch 
to present, in a concise form, some — 
by no means all — of the interesting questions 
connected with the origin and formation of 
the Roman state, particularly as they appear 
in the light of recent investigations, confining 
the subject within the first two hundred and 
forty-four of the traditional seven hundred 
and fifty-three years which preceded the 
Christian era; that is to say, from the found- 
ing of the city to the end of the monarchy 
and the dawn of the republic — a period which 
modern historians hardly recognize as coming 
within the domain of authentic history at all. 

Mr. Dennis, in the preface to his " Cities 
and Cemeteries of Etruria," has borrowed 
from Pliny the following language: 

"Res ardua, vetustis novitatem dare, novis auctor- 
itatem, obsoletis nitorem, obscuris lucem, fastiditis 
gratiam, dubiis fidem, omnibus vero naturam, et naturae 
suae omnia." — It is no easy matter to give novelty to old 
subjects, authority to new, to impart luster to rusty 
things, light to the obscure and mysterious, to throw a 



vi Introduction 

charm over what is distasteful, to command credence 
for doubtful matters, to give nature to everything, and to 
arrange everything according to its nature. 

I might add with considerable emphasis 

that in my own case, and so far as this paper 

is concerned, all these things were not only 

"no easy matter," but quite impossible of 

accomplishment. 

G. S. Potter. 

Buffalo, September, 1897. 



The Founders of Rome 



The Founders of Rome 



CENTRAL ITALY 

MUCH has been written, a vast amount 
of curious and laboriously acquired 
learning has been displayed, by historians and 
historical critics in Europe and America, upon 
the subject of the early history of Italy. 
Many interesting ethnological questions have 
been discussed, some have been settled, and 
others are likely to remain to the student a 
fruitful source of speculation. 

In America we have an assemblage of 
foreign races greater than that of any other 
country of modern times. Ancient Italy was 
not less distinguished in the same direction 
among the countries of Europe, prior to the 
foundation of Rome. It was "a common 
asylum for all the wanderers of the ancient 



2 The Founders of Rome 

world." In nearly every European country 
there are traces of a race anterior to the time 
when men had learned to till the soil. Not 
so, however, in Italy. Men have tilled its 
fruitful fields " since history began." 

The origin, or nationality, of many of 
these ancient races is clearly traceable: — but 
what of the mysterious Pelasgi, and their still 
more mysterious allies, vaguely called Abo- 
rigines, whose stupendous and cyclopean 
structures confront the wondering tourist 
among many of the older cities of central 
Italy? Walls and fortifications are found that 
were ancient and time-stained long before 
Romulus (if there was a Romulus) was born. 
And the Umbrians, who were they? And, 
indeed, whence came the Etruscans, who, de- 
scending upon the Umbrians from the north, 
crowded them from their homes? Did they 
come from Greece, or were they an Asiatic 
tribe — from Lydia, perhaps — penetrating, as 
has been surmised, into Europe by the defiles 
of the Caucasus? They were skilled in war, 
in commerce, in art; and they have disap- 
peared from history, leaving us no key to, 



Central Italy 3 

and only thirty words of, their language — 
really, nothing but their tombs, their statues, 
their vases, and fragments of the walls of 
their once populous cities. The necropolis at 
Corneto, near ancient Tarquinii, is estimated 
to have contained two million tombs and to 
have been sixteen miles in extent, many of the 
tombs being richly decorated, while thousands 
of painted vases are found within them; and 
in the tombs at Volci, bronzes, mirrors, can- 
delabra, of the most exquisite workmanship, 
have been discovered. One of these tombs 
at Corneto was constructed long before the 
fall of Troy, and Troy, if we may credit the 
tradition, fell one thousand one hundred and 
eighty-seven years before Christ — long before 
the time of Saul and David. In it were found 
gold chains, rings, necklaces, fringes — in fact, 
an entire garment of the goldworker's art. 

With the ancient nations of northern Italy 
we are not concerned; nor yet with the people 
who, when the Greeks, in the eighth and ninth 
centuries before Christ, colonized southern 
Italy, were found to be in possession of those 
fertile plains. 



4 The Founders of Rome 

Let us for a moment penetrate still fur- 
ther into the mysterious past, confining our- 
selves to the central region about Rome. We 
find the Siculi, " a people sprung from the soil," 
says Dionysius, who afterwards migrated to 
and settled in Sicily — whence the name of 
that island; and we are told, also, that the 
Oscans and Sabellians, or Sabines, were the 
true Italian races. Far from the north — from 
ancient Liguria, a country lying in part be- 
tween the Alps and the sea, came the Ligures; 
they, in turn, being dispossessed of their 
homes by the Pelasgians; and then, after 
"the Pelasgic wave had rolled away," meet- 
ing here as at a rendezvous, the Etruscans, 
Sabines, and Latins — the Latins destined to 
become the dominant race, the rulers of Italy. 
Later on came the Greeks and the raiding 
Gauls. 

Leaping a gap, it may be, of centuries, 
dismissing without comment the various and 
conflicting questions involving the descent 
and intermingling, the disappearance and the 
survival of these different tribal or national 
elements, we come to a period which may 



Central Italy 5 

fairly be said to be that in which the history 
of Rome commences, or ought to commence. 
Among the nations, or tribes, who appear to 
have been in possession of central Italy in the 
year 753 B. C. — the year of the legendary 
foundation of Rome — were the Etruscans, 
Umbrians, Sabines, Latins, Samnites, Vol- 
scians, Oscans, ^Equians, Hernicans, and 
Auruncans. The Siculi, the Ligures, the 
Pelasgi, had stamped the evidences of their 
occupation upon the country; but the govern- 
ing influence of nearly all of the invading 
nations, except the Etruscans, had faded 
away, and we find a considerable portion of 
the mountains and plains of central Italy in 
possession of nations, some of them insignifi- 
cant, whose history cannot be traced back of 
their occupation of Italian soil. 

Several writers ascribe to the Latins a 
Pelasgic origin. However this may be, it is 
agreed that they were originally of very little 
consequence as a people — dwelling in the 
central Apennines, emigrating thence to the 
more fertile hills and plains of Latium, a 
country, or district, bounded by the Tiber 



6 The Founders of Rome 

and the Anio on the north, and the sea and 
the Pontine marshes on the south, their capital 
city being Alba Longa, which was some fifteen 
miles to the south, and in sight of Rome, on 
the Alban Hills. This is the people who are 
believed to have been the founders of Rome. 



II 

THE LATINS 

Was there a city, or had there been cities, 
upon either of the seven — or ten — hills of 
Rome before the Latins came and fortified the 
Palatine Hill? 

IS there any reason for the belief that the 
Siculi, the Ligures, the Pelasgi, the 
Etruscans, or any other nation, ever built 
upon, or fortified, either of the Roman hills 
prior to the Latins? "Yes," says Dionysius; 
and a chorus of modern writers join in this 
reply. Merivale says "Yes"; and Ampere, 
that there were nine Romes before Rome, and 
he describes them. Professor Middleton, re- 
ferring to the recent discovery of a necropolis 
on the Esquiline Hill, in which he said were 
tombs containing vases, etc., of Phoenician 
and Etruscan workmanship, believes there 
was an Etruscan city upon that spot. He 
may (I venture the suggestion with some hes- 

7 



8 The Founders of Rome 

itation) he may have overlooked the fact that 
other investigations have shown that the 
Latins long before the settlement of Rome 
carried on a more or less brisk trade with 
their Etruscan neighbors; and, not being a 
people of artistic taste or genius, may have 
acquired these very articles from the Etruscans 
in exchange for their sheep and oxen, for 
the Latins were unquestionably a pastoral 
people. De Coulanges informs us that Rome 
was the center where Latins, Etruscans, Sabel- 
lians, and Greeks met. Mommsen, probably 
the greatest of all the historians of Rome, 
says in substance that the primitive Roman 
commonwealth was composed of three tribal 
elements, the Ramnians, Luceres, and Tities — 
the first two of Latin stock, the last of Sabine. 
In other words (mine, not his), Rome was 
founded by the Latins and Sabines. He 
curtly dismisses the familiar story of the foun- 
dation of Rome by refugees from Alba Longa 
under Romulus, which the older historians re- 
late and some of our modern archaeologists 
are inclined to look upon with friendly eyes, 
and he tells us, furthermore, that the opin- 



The Latins g 

ion that Rome was founded by a confused 
aggregate of Etruscan, Sabine, Hellenic, and 
Pelasgic fragments is also irrational. He as- 
serts in one breath that Rome was of slow 
growth; in another, that it may have been a 
creation rather than a growth, the youngest 
among the Latin states. Freeman and other 
historical writers endorse Mommsen, Freeman 
placing the Ramnes on the Palatine, the Tities 
(Sabines) on the Capitoline, and the Lu- 
ceres on the Ccelian hill. Dennie, in his 
entertaining work " Rome of To-day and 
Yesterday," informs us that the Siculi seem 
to have occupied the Palatine; the Ligures, 
the Esquiline Hill and adjacent valleys; while, 
later on, the Pelasgi possessed the region of 
the Tiber. He thinks the Etruscans had 
occupied the Capitoline Hill before the 
Sabines, and also the Janiculan, — basing his 
belief, no doubt, upon the fact that the Janic- 
ulan, being upon the right bank of the river, 
was in Etruscan territory. These various 
theories are somewhat perplexing and to the 
student difficult to reconcile. 

What, if anything, is known upon this 



10 The Founders of Rome 

subject? Was there an urban population on 
either of these hills prior to the occupation 
of the Latins ? What have we beside theories 
based upon philological and ethnic resem- 
blances to aid us in determining this question ? 
We have no written records to assist us. If 
any existed in Rome, they are believed to 
have been destroyed by fire some three hun- 
dred and sixty-three years after its foundation 
on its conquest by the Gauls. (In this con- 
nection it is worth noticing, in passing, that 
Ihne, the German historian, doubts the story 
of the complete destruction of Rome — except 
the Capitol — on this occasion, and his reasons 
in support of his view are not without force.) 
No writings, hardly any monumental inscrip- 
tions, have we to enlighten us. What have 
we, then? 

If Rodolfo Lanciani, the eminent archae- 
ologist who has for many years been the offi- 
cial head of the authorized investigations and 
excavations that have been carried on in and 
about the city, is to be credited, there is 
strong evidence before us that the earliest 
known settlement upon the site of Rome was 



The Latins 1 1 

made by Latin refugees from the Alban Hills. 
Plainly visible from Rome, upon the borders 
of the dreary Campagna, these storied heights 
look benignly down upon their once mighty 
offspring. History and tradition, the orator 
and the poet, have combined to render the 
Alban Hills almost sacred to the student and 
admirer of Rome. 

Standing upon the brow of the Janiculan 
Hill, we see before us across the Tiber three 
of the early hills of Rome — the Palatine, 
Capitoline, and Aventine. Partly surround- 
ing them, and jutting out toward them from 
the Campagna in a semicircular form, the 
four spurs, or, rather, extensions, of the Cam- 
pagna, the Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, and 
Ccelian hills, complete "the mystic seven." 
A little to the north is the long ridge of the 
Pincian, and across the river facing it the 
Vatican Hill. This is Rome of today. Ex- 
tending our view far to the north we see lofty 
Soracte rising to the sky; and stretching away 
to the south along the distant horizon are 
the Umbrian and Sabine Apennines, blue in 
the morning light and purple with the dying 



1 2 The Founders of Rome 

day; while southward and nearer, the Alban 
Hills rise gently to their crowning height 
of Monte Cavo, then sink in graceful out- 
lines westward toward the sea. Before us, 
then, at our feet — and also far away, though 
visible — there lies the stage upon which was 
enacted much of the great drama of Roman 
history. 

But to the question. Nothing has been 
found, says Lanciani, within the past sixteen 
years to give any foundation to Professor 
Middleton's statement that an Etruscan city 
of great size and importance existed upon 
one of the largest hills of Rome. Rome, 
he adds, was founded by a colony of shep- 
herds from the Alban Hills. And then, 
referring to certain excavations on one of 
the Alban Hills, made in the early part of 
this century, and renewed in 1867, he describes 
a trench that was cut, first through a stratum 
of soil fourteen inches deep; underneath it 
through one, thirty-six inches thick, of lava, 
or peperino, a volcanic stone; then through 
a narrow bed of fossil vegetation, below 
which lay a bed about fifty inches deep, in 



The Latins 13 

which were discovered handmade and sun- 
dried jars containing the remains of incin- 
erated bodies with amber and bronze orna- 
ments, and, around these jars — or hut-urns, 
as they are sometimes called — vases and 
utensils of every shape and description. Re- 
cent excavations in and near Rome have 
brought to light articles identical with these, 
evidently made, or used, by the same people 
who had previously dwelt upon the Alban 
Hills. In the preface to the last edition of 
his " Ancient Rome," Lanciani speaks of a 
necropolis which he says " we have discov- 
ered [in Rome], older than the walls of 
Servius Tullius, containing more than five 
thousand specimens in bronze, amber, stone, 
and clay." (Possibly this may be the necrop- 
olis alluded to by Middleton.) He argues 
that it is apparent from the evidences of vol- 
canic eruptions on the Alban Hills that the 
shepherds were driven to the plains for water 
and pasturage for their cattle and sheep. The 
god of the shepherds was Faun, or Lupercus, 
"the driver away of wolves." There was a 
grotto on the Palatine Hill, called from the 



14 The Founders of Rome 

earliest times the Lupercal, consecrated to 
this god, traces of which were discovered as 
long ago as the fifth century of our era. 
Again, the goddess of these shepherds was 
Pales: from this name we have that of the 
Palatine Hill — the only name by which it 
is known in history or tradition. One of 
the ancient gates of the Palatine was called 
Mugonia, from mugire, the mooing of cattle. 
The gate leading to the river was called 
Romana, from rumon, a Latin name for river, 
or stream; and the first ruler, or rulers, of the 
settlement Romulus, "the man from the town 
of the river." In the fossil cemetery at 
Alba Longa, no trace of iron was found — 
only amber and bronze. The same absence 
of iron is noticed in early Rome ; and, more 
than this, it is known that it was regarded 
with religious horror by the first settlers. 
From these facts Lanciani insists that it is 
established that the Latins were the first to 
establish a permanent residence upon the hills 
of Rome. He might have added other proofs, 
perhaps, in support of his theory, one of 
which I may be permitted to mention; viz., 



The Latins 1 5 

the ancient cisterns on the Palatine Hill, 
formed by closing certain winding passages 
in the construction of the wall of Romulus, 
so called. These cisterns (having vertical 
round shafts, or openings, for buckets) have 
their exact counterparts of very ancient date 
at Alba Longa. The. ' ' wall of Romulus ' ' 
enclosed the Palatine, and is generally con- 
ceded to be of a date corresponding nearly 
with the legendary foundation of the city. 
What is the origin of the name of the 
city — Roma? One writer will say from Ram- 
nes, one of the three tribes who founded the 
city; another, that it is a purely Pelasgic 
word, meaning "strength." Schvvegler says 
from Ruma, "the nourisher"; Mommsen, 
from Rama, "the bushwood city." Lanciani 
says, from Rumon, a stream — the town by 
the stream. Perhaps the last guess is as good 
as any, for it seems to have a certain amount 
of archseological backing. 



Ill 

THE MONARCHY 

Is the well-known story of the lives and 
reigns of the seven kings of Rome from Romu- 
lus to Tarquinius Superbus to be treated as 
fabulous ? 

ACCORDING to tradition, Alba Longa 
<l\. was founded three hundred and sixty- 
years before the foundation of Rome by 
^Escanius, son of ./Eneas, the hero who es- 
caped from burning Troy and landed and 
settled upon the coast of Latium. Romulus 
and Remus were the sons of Rhea Sylvia, an 
Alban priestess of Vesta, herself descended 
from /Eneas. 

The story of the twins who floated down 
the Tiber and were nursed by the wolf, who 
grew to manhood, and one of whom is said 
to have founded Rome, was, long before 
Virgil embodied it in his marvelous verse, 
but a legend told by Roman mothers to their 

16 



The Monarchy ly 

children. Still, it would be somewhat com- 
forting if we could believe that we have not 
to give up Romulus altogether ; and, possibly, 
we have not, although it is more than likely 
we must part with the wolf and with Remus 
and the birds. Let us listen to the histo- 
rian Livy: ''According to the legend of 
early Rome, the names of the first seven 
kings were Romulus [753 B. C], Numa 
Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Mar- 
tius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, and 
Tarquinius Superbus," and they reigned, 
altogether, two hundred and forty years, the 
last of the Tarquins having been expelled in 
510 B. C. Then came the Republic, which, 
after an existence of some four hundred and 
eighty years, was, in 29 B. C. (seven hundred 
and twenty-two years after the traditional 
foundation of the city), succeeded by the 
Empire, which had been founded by Julius 
Caesar, "the greatest character in history." 
But, confining ourselves to the problems and 
difficulties connected with the history of the 
times of the early kings, we are reminded 
that the most striking feature of the Romu- 



1 8 The Founders of Rome 

lean legend is its pronounced Grecian char- 
acter. The Greeks had preserved scarcely 
any record of their past, except that of the 
contest with Troy. Upon its conquest of 
Greece in the latter half of the republican 
era, Rome became in its education, both 
literary and artistic, a disciple of the con- 
quered nation. Rome at that time had no 
literature worthy of the name. Is it at all 
surprising that of the dozen or more tradi- 
tions relating to Rome and its foundation by 
Romulus which we find in Plutarch, nearly all 
bear the stamp of Grecian origin? The story 
may be said to be too romantic to be Roman. 
It is Grecian in its structure and movement, 
and was invented, hundreds of years after the 
expulsion of the kings, to charm the Roman 
people with a belief in their heroic origin. 
If Rome was founded by a band of Alban 
shepherds, it does not follow that Romulus 
was their first king, by any means. He was a 
warlike king. The earliest kings of Rome, as 
Ihne clearly shows us, were sacerdotal, or 
priestly, rulers — not warriors. The govern- 
ment at the beginning was a religious one in 



The Monarchy 19 

the fullest sense of the term. But it does not 
follow that we are, for these reasons or any 
others that have been urged, to reject unquali- 
fiedly, as wholly unsupported, the legendary 
account of the reigns of the seven kings. 
The ablest of modern historical writers, while 
condemning or ignoring the story, are fre- 
quently found referring to the events and 
achievements of this period as founded upon 
facts which have a genuine basis of historic 
truth. Suppose it true that Numa, the sacer- 
dotal king, reigned before Romulus, the fight- 
ing king : we may still believe that the condi- 
tion of Rome at what may be called the be- 
ginning of the historical period justifies the 
assertion that its position as a state was the 
result of the labors of rulers possessing attri- 
butes and authority similar to those ascribed to 
Romulus, Numa, and the Tarquins. Let us 
even suppose that their names are mere inven- 
tions: there must have been rulers of Rome 
who accomplished, in succession, the things 
with accounts of which the most skeptical of 
historical critics are delighted to adorn their 
pages. 



20 The Founders of Rome 

The wall of Romulus, parts of which are 
now exposed to view, is of the earliest period 
of the traditional kingdom. Its structural 
character is of that time — twenty-six cen- 
turies ago. It could only have been built by 
some one powerful enough to have com- 
manded the labor of a large body of men. 
Why not by a Romulus ? 

The worship of Vesta at Rome is believed 
to have been nearly contemporaneous with the 
occupation of the Palatine Hill by the Latins. 
Is it not fair to assume that some pious Numa 
was the builder of the shrine of Vesta at the 
base of the hill ? No one doubts the great 
antiquity of the temple which existed on the 
other side of the valley of the forum — of the 
two-faced Janus, from time immemorial attrib- 
uted to this same Numa. 

Ignoring the story of the carrying away of 
the Sabine women by the followers of Romu- 
lus, which may be done in view of the fact 
that the story is older than Rome, and was 
among the traditions of other and older coun- 
tries; dismissing Tarpeia and the armlets, and 
the Egeria of Numa, with his miracles and the 



The Monarchy 2 1 

story of the trick which he played upon the 
god Faunus, and all the accounts of his great 
wisdom, as unworthy of comment; even de- 
nying that Ancus Martius built the famous 
bridge or founded Ostia, the seaport of Rome ; 
admitting that he did not construct the dismal 
Tullianum, or Mamertine prison — admitting 
this in the face of the fact that today it bears 
strong evidence of its having been built at 
about the time Ancus is supposed to have 
reigned, — let us come down to the reign of 
the Tarquins — if there were any Tarquins. 
If there were, and if Tarquinius Priscus, half 
Greek and half Etruscan, reigned twenty-eight 
years ; if his son-in-law Servius Tullius reigned 
forty-four years, and his son-in-law Tarquinius 
Superbus twenty-five years, then to them, or 
rulers very much like what they are described 
as having been, must be attributed the four 
great architectural and engineering works 
which the later republic inherited; viz., the 
great temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline 
Hill, the temple of Diana on the Aventine, 
the great wall enclosing the seven hills, 
and, greater than all, the sewers of Rome. 



22 The Founders of Rome 

But, further than all this, it is practically 
conceded that to their time and to a ruler 
or rulers like Servius is to be attributed the 
complete civil and military organization of 
the city upon a plan so admirably adapted to 
its government that much of it survived into 
the Rome of Christianity. No one can look 
today upon the colossal fragments of the 
so-called Servian Wall which have been re- 
cently exposed to view without believing in 
a Servius Tullius. 

Livy tells us that the great cloaca was built 
by Tarquinius Priscus. Its original size was 
twelve feet in height and ten feet eight inches 
wide. Strabo and Pliny both say that a cart- 
load of hay could pass through these sewers. 
Their masonry, without mortar, is so solid 
and strong that huge weights are carried over 
them, buildings fall upon them, earthquakes 
shake them; "yet," says Pliny, "they have 
lasted seven hundred years almost uninjured, a 
monument of antiquity." Eighteen hundred 
years have gone by since Pliny wrote these 
words, and still the mighty cloaca does its 
work as perfectly as when builded twenty-five 



The Monarchy 23 

hundred years, at least, ago in the days of the 
kings of Rome. 

However, let us, in order to preserve in our 
minds the true spirit of the historical critic, 
repeat to ourselves as a warning the expression 
of the historian Ihne: "The story of the 
kings ... is unreal and improbable from be- 
ginning to end. Its whole plan, composition, 
and arrangement bear the stamp of bold and 
clumsy fiction ! ' ' 

Nevertheless, to the curious and enthusias- 
tic — possibly imaginative — student, the sites 
and the remains of that period present a de- 
lightful subject of investigation. Within the 
past twenty years the exact site, and, in fact, 
the substructure, of the great temple of Jupi- 
ter on the Capitoline have been discovered, 
and a much disputed question as to its loca- 
tion settled. The temple stood there at the 
beginning of the republican era, and was 
then a relic of the older days of Rome. 
The ruins at the foot of the hill, which 
have been identified as those of the tem- 
ple of Saturn, unquestionably occupy the 
site of the older temple erected before the 



24 The Founders of Rome 

republic, itself occupying the site of the prim- 
itive altar which the first settlers of Rome 
erected for their sacrifices to this god. And 
there today are the remains of the house of 
the Vestals, and the Palatine walls, the Servian 
walls, and all the other more or less frag- 
mentary remains of the times of the kings, 
above referred to. 

But, leaving these things "to take care 
of themselves," before drawing, as I will, 
in a word (and in a moment), my conclu- 
sions concerning the period under con- 
sideration, let me refer again to the his- 
torian Ihne. After concluding that the his- 
tory of the kings is no history at all, he 
asks if it is not possible to save some- 
thing out of the wreck? He answers the 
question by drawing a picture, "necessarily 
imperfect," of the political condition of the 
people of that period and the revolutions 
through which it passed. Conceding that, 
before Rome became powerful, Latium was 
filled with a number of independent cities, 
at the head of which was Alba Longa, he 
reminds us of the fact that Rome continued 



The Monarchy 25 

to resort to the venerated temple of Jupiter 
Latiaris on the Alban Mount, and assumed 
to preside at the ceremonies of the Latin 
people at that shrine till late in its history, 
long after the republic. Then he recognizes 
the tradition of the advent upon some of the 
Roman hills of the Sabines, as the older annals 
relate, as not altogether unfounded. "Nay, 
it is certain," he says; " for among the oldest 
permanent institutions of Rome, its religious 
rites and deities, are some admitted to be 
Sabine." And then, as to the traditional 
accounts of the strifes between the Sabines 
and the Latins of the Palatine, he admits 
that they must have taken place, and that 
it is perfectly natural to suppose they, like 
other Latin nations, afterwards formed a 
confederacy: and all this would follow the 
legendary story also. In this union he sees 
the secret of the future greatness of Rome, 
the league of the other Latin cities being of 
such a character as to leave each member 
free to support or oppose the policy of the 
majority, while the Roman confederacy had 
a common senate and a popular assembly 



26 The Founders of Rome 

and could act as a unit. Then he says the 
head of this community was a king, elected 
for life, who combined the functions of high 
priest and military chief, these functions being 
afterwards divided, the warrior kings succeed- 
ing the pious rulers; and the military and 
civil power, overshadowing that of the priestly 
order, consolidated and strengthened the state 
and thus intensified the preponderance of 
Rome over the other Latin cities. But, more 
than this, he practically admits the truth of 
much which the ancient annals relate as to 
the rule of the last three kings — the Etruscan 
rulers. He believes, and no doubt rightly, 
that the Etruscans conquered Rome. It is 
conceded that Etruscan civilization raised 
Rome to a position of great power and com- 
parative enlightenment — that out of it arose 
the very institutions which are described in 
the traditions which he repudiates. And 
finally he informs us that a reaction took 
place : political opposition seems to have been 
backed by national animosity. The Etruscan 
kings were expelled; Romans and Latins 
regained their independence at the same time; 



The Monarchy 27 

a partial restoration of old institutions took 
place ; although the old federal and sacerdotal 
ones were not revived, still the title of 
sacerdotal king was allowed to continue, the 
office remaining stripped of all political 
influence. 

Is he right in saying this is no history at 
all? 

What conclusions are we to draw from the 
facts, conditions, and the various theories 
above mentioned — what are we to say is the 
situation today in respect to the knowledge 
which the world has accumulated touching the 
Roman monarchy ? I have already more than 
hinted my belief in regard to the matter in 
question. If the traditional, and for a long 
time accepted, account of the times of the 
ancient kings is without foundation — that is 
to say, if the names, dates, and events as there 
related are pure inventions — there is still 
enough evidence remaining, evidence that 
would be received as competent in a court of 
law, to satisfy a mind not altogether skeptical 
that the deeds which are attributed to the 



28 The Founders of Rome 

men who are described in the tradition must 
have been accomplished by men who possessed 
the powers, the attributes, and the inclina- 
tions attributed to the legendary seven kings 
of Rome. 



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